Contributed Photo
A wall at the skate park in Seymour.
SEYMOUR — Volunteers and town officials are talking about transforming vandalism into artistic expression at the town’s skate park.
The idea came about after First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis recently noticed graffiti on a wall at the town’s skate park next to the community center off Pine Street.
There were two teens in the area at the time, Drugonis said, who approached her and offered to pick up trash off the ground. Drugonis talked with the pair, who said they used the skate park often and were bummed to see graffiti there.
Drugonis summarized the conversation on the First Selectwoman’s Facebook page.
“They expressed their dislike of the graffiti and how they feel about the disrespect shown to the park by people,” Drugonis wrote in a post on the town’s Facebook page. “They emphasized that during the pandemic this is the only place for them to get out and release their energy and are very thankful we have this for them.”
Victoria Soltis, a sixth-grade teacher in Bridgeport who started a local group called “Seymour Valley Center for the Arts,” saw the Facebook post and contacted town hall.
Soltis thought the wall could be used by graffiti artists to produce something beautiful. It’s not an idea out of left field.
In New Haven, a graffiti group called “Hi Crew” creates extraordinary (sanctioned) artwork in public places. The group has been commissioned to do art work, and they’ve asked permission from private property owners to create murals. Click here for a story from The New Haven Independent.
Commissioned work (2015) from the “Hi Crew” under Interstate 91 in New Haven.
Solits added vandals are less likely to “tag” or paint over a graffiti mural created by graffiti artists.
Why not do something like that at the Seymour Skate Park?
“It’s graffiti done in a responsible, legal way, and these artists can serve as role models for the younger kids in town,” Soltis said. “I saw Annmarie’s (Facebook) post, and we want to reach out to youths and give them something to do.”
Soltis suggested she could reach out to the New Haven-based graffiti group to see if there was interest in creating a mural at the skate park. Or perhaps the artists could be Seymour young people. She said her group could be responsible for cleaning up any unwanted graffiti at the park after the creation of a mural.
Soltis made the comments during this week’s Seymour Board of Selectmen meeting, to which she was invited by Drugonis. The First Selectwoman also invited Jack Cavanaugh, the 15-year-old who Drugonis met at the skate park, which has been in town since 2014.
Jack said the skate park is his second home, and he liked the idea of a people-powered mural.
“It gives me something to do, especially with sports shut down,” he told the Selectmen. “I like to stay active. I feel like (the graffiti) is unnecessary. It’s people who come and do it for some reason and I don’t want that taken away from me. Little kids come here and people write inappropriate stuff and that stops parents from bringing their kids there.”
Selectman Pat Lombardi liked what Soltis has in mind to combat the unwanted skate park graffiti.
“It’s something that’s much needed there, and my hats off to you,” Lombardi said.
Drugonis said she and the town’s Administrative Assistant Rory Burke will work with Soltis in helping to get the artistic initiative off the ground.
“Our youth need more outlets than we currently have to offer,” Soltis said.
